De Bruin to keep medals won in Seville

Michelle Smith de Bruin will keep the four European medals she won in Seville at the 1997 European Championships. According to a fax sent by FINA, the world governing body of swimming, to LEN, the European governing body, no retroactive sanctions will be taken.

The four medals, two gold and two silver, were won in August 1997; the controversial urine sample taken from Smith de Bruin at her Kilkenny home was carried out in January 1998. According to international rules, competitors can be stripped of their medals if they test positive within six months of a championship win. This was the case with Smith de Bruin. However, the swimmer was banned for a drug-related offence and not for testing positive for a banned substance. Her four-year ban, upheld recently by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Lausanne, was for tampering with a sample.

Alexandre Sansa, director of LEN, said yesterday that the case regarding Smith de Bruin and her European medals was now closed.

"We are not going to take any retroactive sanctions. That is it. FINA have informed us by fax that according to the international rules we will not be taking retroactive sanctions. "It is what we've said before. If there was no banned substance involved in the case, then how can we take action against it?"

De Bruin now holds two gold meals from the Vienna European Championships in 1995, two gold and two silver from the Seville European Championships in 1997, four Olympic medals, including three gold, from the Atlanta Olympic Games in 1996. She is also the holder of 32 Irish swimming records.

No decision has yet been made by the new swimming body, Swim Ireland, regarding the Irish records held by the swimmer.